Sounders FC deals Fucito, Neagle for Johnson

Published 11:40 pm Friday, February 17, 2012

SEATTLE — Seattle Sounders FC has spent the better part of its Major League Soccer existence searching for a permanent solution to start at forward along with Fredy Montero.

On Friday, Seattle thinks it found the answer in Eddie Johnson, a 27-year-old forward with significant U.S. National Team experience. In exchange for Johnson, Seattle gave up forward Mike Fucito and midfielder Lamar Neagle, both of whom played significant roles last season and were fan favorites in Seattle.

“We hated to part with them, but saying all of that, it was a unique opportunity and Eddie is a forward with vast international experience, he’s a forward who has played in the World Cup and represented our country on a number of occasions,” Sounders FC coach Sigi Schmid said on a conference call. “He is a player I know still has goals in front of him and still wants to achieve those goals, and still has the physical tools to make that happen.”

While Montero, the franchise’s career leader in goals, has been a constant at one starting spot for three seasons, Seattle has tried a number of options at the other forward position over the past three seasons, including Nate Jaqua, Blaise Nkufo, Fucito, and Roger Levesque to name a few. Last season they thought they had the solution in O’Brian White, but after a promising start, White was sidelined for the season with a blood clot in his leg, and further complications have him still sidelined with no timetable set for his return.

In Johnson, Seattle believes it has found a permanent partner up front for Montero.

“Certainly we’ve found an established forward, a guy who has a good pedigree and who has that capability, so that’s my expectation,” Schmid said. “… My expectation is that Johnson and Montero can become a forward pairing that we’ll be able to put down on a weekly basis and is a pairing that is going to give us a lot of joy by scoring a lot of goals.”

Johnson has made 41 appearances with the national team since 2004, netting 12 goals, but has seen his role at the international level decrease in recent years. Johnson played in Major League Soccer for four seasons before signing with Fulham of the English Premier League in 2007. He played in only 19 games for Fulham, then played on loan with Cardiff City and Preston North End, teams in England’s second-tier league, and with Aris of the Greek Super League. He nearly returned to MLS last summer, then had a deal fall through with a team in Mexico, and after a life of constant movement, Johnson is looking forward to some stability in his career.

“I’d been in Europe for three and a half years, I never really broke into the team in Fulham and went on loan a couple of times,” Johnson said on a conference call. “On certain loans … I went by myself and left my family behind, my wife and my daughter. I guess it was just a situation where I couldn’t figure out where I wanted to be in my career. A part of me wanted to come back to America because I’d watch the highlights all the time in Europe and to be honest, I missed the league, but it was one of those things where I wanted to test Europe and see how I could learn from the experience over there.”

Because Johnson has national team experience, he had to go through the league’s allocation process to rejoin Major League Soccer. He was selected by the expansion Montreal Impact with the first pick, then traded to Seattle.

Before the trade, Fucito, 25, was a top candidate to start at forward alongside Montero, battling Sammy Ochoa for the job. In three seasons with Sounders FC, Fucito scored three goals with two assists in 23 appearances and added five goals in the 2010 and 2011 CONCACAF Champions League and two goals in last year’s U.S. Open Cup. Neagle, a Federal Way native, had a breakout year in 2011, scoring five goals with two assists in 23 league appearances, including a hat trick in a win over Columbus.

“I know expectations are high,” Johnson said. “Two quality players got traded. I just want to let the fans in Seattle and the organization know that I’m going to come in and work hard and do a good job. I’m in the right environment. I couldn’t be in a better environment. This is a team that always creates goal-scoring opportunities, and looking at the roster, the quality that we have on the team, I know I’ll be fine. To be a part of this team, I couldn’t be any happier.”